skip to main content
article

Safe worst-case execution time analysis by abstract interpretation of executable code

Published:13 June 2007Publication History
Skip Abstract Section

Abstract

To verify that a safety-critical application meets all requirements lies in the responsibility of the system designers. Classical software validation methods like code review and testing with debugging are expensive and cannot really guarantee the absence of errors. In constrast, abstract interpretation provides a methodology for static program analysis that yields statements valid for all program runs with all inputs. Employing static analyzers is thus orthogonal to classical testing. A possible cause of catastrophic failure is the violation of timing constraints. Recent trends, e.g. in automotive industries (X-by-wire, time-triggered protocols) require knowledge on the Worst-Case Execution Time (WCET) of each task. Yet WCET determination is a difficult problem because of the characteristics of modern software and hardware. This talk focuses on AbsInt's tool aiT that combines abstract interpretation and integer linear programming to determine upper bounds for the WCETs of code snippets given as routines in executables. The hardware architecture of the underlying processor is precisely taken into account, including cache and pipeline behavior. Bounds are determined without the need to change the code and hold for all executions. aiT is used among others by Airbus in the development of various safety-critical applications for the A380.

Index Terms

  1. Safe worst-case execution time analysis by abstract interpretation of executable code

                    Recommendations

                    Comments

                    Login options

                    Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

                    Sign in

                    Full Access

                    • Published in

                      cover image ACM SIGPLAN Notices
                      ACM SIGPLAN Notices  Volume 42, Issue 7
                      Proceedings of the 2007 LCTES conference
                      July 2007
                      241 pages
                      ISSN:0362-1340
                      EISSN:1558-1160
                      DOI:10.1145/1273444
                      Issue’s Table of Contents
                      • cover image ACM Conferences
                        LCTES '07: Proceedings of the 2007 ACM SIGPLAN/SIGBED conference on Languages, compilers, and tools for embedded systems
                        June 2007
                        258 pages
                        ISBN:9781595936325
                        DOI:10.1145/1254766

                      Copyright © 2007 ACM

                      Publisher

                      Association for Computing Machinery

                      New York, NY, United States

                      Publication History

                      • Published: 13 June 2007

                      Check for updates

                      Qualifiers

                      • article
                    • Article Metrics

                      • Downloads (Last 12 months)0
                      • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)1

                      Other Metrics

                    PDF Format

                    View or Download as a PDF file.

                    PDF

                    eReader

                    View online with eReader.

                    eReader
                    About Cookies On This Site

                    We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website.

                    Learn more

                    Got it!